Euro 2008 Predictions

[Ravi]

What the hell did you do to yourself B@S? >_< You look ridulous..

My money says we lose by 1-0, we do our very best but in the end the oponnent squeezes out an earned 1-0. That is if we play good. If we're not on a roll, my guess is a 3-0 gainst us.

My hope says we make up a fine play of foosball and end up scoring a 1-0 and holding it at that.
I'll probly hear what happened on the news tomorrow...

[waqo]

I think the Dutch shall surprise the Italians, without Totti and Cannavarro they shall not be the same force. Predictions for this group France and Holland XD

Anyway predictions for today:

France 2 Romania 1

Holland 1 Italy 0

[Ravi]

Well, Dutchland jsut took the 1-0 lead.

This was unexpected, hahaha =p
Take that Italy! Let's see how this plays out...

EDIT: 2-0

LOLOLOL

guess my depiction lost!

[lokes]

first goal is controversial

[superbob]

It is, but that second one was beautiful, a perfect counter attack

[b@st@rd]

3-0 damn spaghetti fuckers!!! Ahahahahahahah!!!

[superbob]

The dutch played a great game, perfect counter attacks for them on plays that were both almost goals against them.

[waqo]

Dude that was the game of the tournament. Cmon Holland. I believed in the dutch when even they didn't (yes you b@s and ravi =P) XD I just hope they keep it up because they played almost 'too well' I know it sounds crazy but sometimes you need to save this kind of performance for one of the knockout matches.

Anyway credit to Italy who didn't play a bad game at all, infact played surprisingly well. They just got outclassed by some Dutch Total Football. The technique, the flair, the tenacity, the class! I salute this performance.

I don't care if I was wrong abt the France game, the one no one expected was this result =D I stick to Holland and France for this group!

[Haohmaru]

Hahah we won!!! Damn that second goal was awesome. Van Nistelrooy should have scored the 3-0 in the first half. The Italians pushed the 2nd half with 2, 3 good chances (how the hell did Rosso miss that one? Glad he did though). Van Bronckhorst really deserved to score. Definitely man of the match. I'm surprised that the commentator barely commented on how well Engelaar did today. It's the guys first EC match and he's chilling and giving passes like he's been playing on this level for years. Props to the guy. This was definitely the best match Holland has played under Marco van Basten.

[waqo]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

Hahah we won!!! Damn that second goal was awesome. Van Nistelrooy should have scored the 3-0 in the first half. The Italians pushed the 2nd half with 2, 3 good chances (how the hell did Rosso miss that one? Glad he did though). Van Bronckhorst really deserved to score. Definitely man of the match. I'm surprised that the commentator barely commented on how well Engelaar did today. It's the guys first EC match and he's chilling and giving passes like he's been playing on this level for years. Props to the guy. This was definitely the best match Holland has played under Marco van Basten.

Well I watched in on ITV (British channel) and they were full of praise for Engelaar who was immense imo along with De Jong, but I think the man of the match was Sneijder. It was his shot that was turned in by van Nistelrooy. His perfect pass to bronckhorst followed by his finish (beating Buffon at near post no less!) and you see him pushing van Bronckhorst forward for the third goal and laying the ball perfectly to him again.

If that wasn't enough you can see him constantly tracking back to help out the defense and his passing was impeccable!

I was also impressed by Affelay late in the game as he scraped the top of the crossbar and Van der Sar was his usual awesome self when called in to duty.

[Haohmaru]

That's weird, cause Dutch commentators barely commented about how well he did.

Van Bronckhorst reminds me of R. Carlos. Left back that's comes up when needed. The 2nd goal was all him. He saved Holland by kicking the ball from the line (corner) and then quickly joined the counter. Gave a perfect pass to Kuijt and Sneider finished it in style. 3rd goal was all him too IMO. The pass Sneider gave wasn't anything special. Did you see van Bronckhorst came from? Selflessly passed it to Kuijt, but he messed up a perfect opportunity. Fortunately he got the ball back and delivered a perfect cross for Bronckhorst. I really wonder in which formation Holland is going to play next time. They have van Persie, Huntelaar and Robben so a lot can change in front. Van Basten is a fool if he changes the midfield. Though Affelay left a really good impression on me too. I know him from PSV, so I know how good he is.

Lets see if tomorrows matches will be as entertaining as todays. Can't believe France vs Romania ended goalless. Benzema and Ribbery were great IMO.

[waqo]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

That's weird, cause Dutch commentators barely commented about how well he did.

Van Bronckhorst reminds me of R. Carlos. Left back that's comes up when needed. The 2nd goal was all him. He saved Holland by kicking the ball from the line (corner) and then quickly joined the counter. Gave a perfect pass to Kuijt and Sneider finished it in style. 3rd goal was all him too IMO. The pass Sneider gave wasn't anything special. Did you see van Bronckhorst came from? Selflessly passed it to Kuijt, but he messed up a perfect opportunity. Fortunately he got the ball back and delivered a perfect cross for Bronckhorst. I really wonder in which formation Holland is going to play next time. They have van Persie, Huntelaar and Robben so a lot can change in front. Van Basten is a fool if he changes the midfield. Though Affelay left a really good impression on me too. I know him from PSV, so I know how good he is.

Lets see if tomorrows matches will be as entertaining as todays. Can't believe France vs Romania ended goalless. Benzema and Ribbery were great IMO.

Van Brockhorst's energy in the game was undeniable, he did look a bit like R.Carlos (the best LB ever in my era and my fave player XD) But personally I have to give Sneijder a lot of credit passing with the effectiveness that he did is incredibly difficult.

The Romanians played a solid match and the French were uninspired, Benzema was okay in flashes and Ribery was just his usual self but not once would you say that the Romanians had to defend desperately the only real chance I can remember was Malouda turning Contra inside out and shooting when he should have crossed. They are missing a playmaker in the middle and a player who can turn the game on its head (Henry?) they will play better in the next game but I think they will only draw against the Dutch at best so they will have to beat Italy to remain in the competition at the expense of the Italians. Don't count Romania out yet either.

I think the French should have started with Nasri and left perhaps Anelka on the bench and brought him on later. They also need more from Abidal or to play Evra as their wide players struggled without any assistance from the fullbacks and Anelka's work ethic was poor he needs to be pressing the defenders and create that forward movement to pressure the defenders, he didn't do that even once the whole match, just waited and waited and the Romanians dealt with it comfortably (don't forget this Romania team did awesome in qualifying and beat Portugal!)

[Akuma]

That was by far the best Game !
The Dutch killed them !!!! And that 2nd goal was wonderful !!!!
I live in Switzerland and everyone was against the Italians

gooo oraaanjes

[incy]

i was really shocked when i saw the news that netherlands trashed italy 3 to nothing!

i think the absence of nesta and cannavaro really caused alot of problems, back four became shakey without the two strongholds :/

the front, luca toni was a solo-asshole. keep trying to shoot, but then did not score.. what a shame.. really unfortunate for italy, or it's a sign that italy's gonna fall.. :/

players all getting older and older.. no young talents.. daniele de rossi isn't 22-24 any more.. :/ gosh, dont know what lies in the future for italy.

[D]

Friday we will see what Holland is doing against the French and Italy against Romania.
Italy can win from Romania with ease. The french played poorly yesterday.
So we will see what friday is going to bring us.

I only hope the ego of the Dutch will not be too big and that they are going to play less then what they did, they have set the standard now and now its to them to keep it that way!

[kouga_wolf_demon07]

France, they showed the world they could do it.....almost if it wasn't for that headbutt (stupid Zidane).

[Ravi]

Originally Posted by incy

i was really shocked when i saw the news that netherlands trashed italy 3 to nothing!

i think the absence of nesta and cannavaro really caused alot of problems, back four became shakey without the two strongholds :/

the front, luca toni was a solo-asshole. keep trying to shoot, but then did not score.. what a shame.. really unfortunate for italy, or it's a sign that italy's gonna fall.. :/

players all getting older and older.. no young talents.. daniele de rossi isn't 22-24 any more.. :/ gosh, dont know what lies in the future for italy.

I have to admit I wasn't all too impressed with how the Italians played, they didn't make any serious attempt at a comeback, they weren't fierce enough (for Italians? Surprising, normally they're beats')
They had their chances, and damn good ones at that. But they messed up , dind't finish it off. (Van de Sar seemed very strong in the game..)

Originally Posted by D

Friday we will see what Holland is doing against the French and Italy against Romania.
Italy can win from Romania with ease. The french played poorly yesterday.
So we will see what friday is going to bring us.

I only hope the ego of the Dutch will not be too big and that they are going to play less then what they did, they have set the standard now and now its to them to keep it that way!

Aiii, but I don't think it's a bad thing. A huge ego booster like this could kindle enough fires to continue going. It does light a whole new perspective on the outlooks of Holland, we haven't won of the Italian in like 30 years.. And suddenly 3-nil. I'm guessing we make a tie with France and perhaps walk away with a 2-0 against Roemenia...

[waqo]

Well Spain is already 2-0 up so I won't bother predicting the outcome there. XD Viva Espana! (My number 1 team this Euro)

Other game Sweden 1 Greece 0. Sweden should just about hold on but this Greek side can still spring a surprise! I predict Spain and Sweden from this group but Russia are not to be counted out despite Spain coming on strong to them.